Ysabelle Dalliencourt
Ysabelle Dalliencourt was a character of The Originals Novel series. She was a skilled, but not conventionally powerful witch of New Orleans back in 1722 to 1766. She was renowned for her ability to make alliances and Elijah Mikaelson was drawn to her for that. She helped him protect a portion of land that was owned by the Original Family and helped influence decisions which lead to the Mikaelsons' seat of power in the city. She was the sister of the Leader of the New Orleans Coven at the time Sofia Lescheres, née Dalliencourt, the aunt of Vivianne Lescheres, the sister-in-law of Quentin Lescheres, the wife of Abelard Leroux, mother of Lily Leroux and the grandmother of Marguerite Leroux. Ysabelle was a member of the Dalliencourt Family and a relative of the Leroux Family. The Originals Novel Series |-|The Rise= Ysabelle Dalliencourt is first mentioned by Elijah Mikaelson as being someone who is hungry for power and authority, being someone who would be inclined to make alliances with powerful beings in exchange for favors. Elijah visits her home across the Cemetery where they first meet. Elijah credits her for speaking to a stranger, to which she replies that she would invite him into her house if it weren't for his undead status, she then steers him away from her house. As she leads him away from her home, Elijah states that his family has been in New Orleans for nine years and they still do not have a home in New Orleans, to which Ysabelle informs him that it is his fault, as it is his family's nature as vampires. Elijah argues that it is by her family's decree that he, Rebekah and Klaus not have a home in New Orleans and that she could perhaps influence her brethren. Ysabelle shoots this down because she has no authority over her fellow witches and Elijah informs her that if he receives power of their town, her help will be appreciated and remembered. Ysabelle disagrees, as vampire opinions aren't considered much in their city. She goes on to say that she agrees with her people on this matter, abominations such as Elijah's family are not meant to be tolerated, especially with the alliance the witches were building with the werewolf families, much to Elijah's silent annoyance as this same woman (along with all other witches) reveres the same power (magic) that created these so-called "abominations". After Elijah tells her that he is aware of their new liaisons, she says "Oh, so you are aware that we are in the process of allying with your enemies? I thought you must have forgotten in order to ask such a thing. If I went before the witches and argued that we should play both sides, when the wolves are a legion and you are three, they would laugh at me." Elijah threateningly expresses that if it comes to the Originals against the entire town, they will not need anything or anyone else. Ysabelle counters that if that were true, he wouldn't even be there with her. Elijah is amused by her spirit as he can see she doesn't completely revolt at the idea of working with vampires as most her people would before he promises to return with a way to convince her he is worthy of living in their town and her helping would serve her interests and then leaves. Days later, Elijah returns to her home to find that she is not there, so he goes to the cemetery, where he finds her attempting to contact the spirits of the deceased Dalliencourt ancestors, which she seems to be failing at. As he makes himself known, Ysabelle opens her eyes and is enraged that he sees her power failing her, demanding "why you've come to bother me in this sacred place?" Elijah answers he needs a favor, noticing the fire of a circle of candles around the witch is in perfect, unmoving alignment. Ysabelle is unimpressed by his return to her as she feels they've already had this conversation, though Elijah notices that she sounds interested nonetheless. Elijah offers that she call him "Elijah" rather than "Monsieur Mikaelson" and reveals that the other night he had wanted her help with a home and now he has one. He shows her a title deed to the house. Ysabelle is shocked and asks which one of her neighbors he had to kill to get the document and Elijah answers (truthfully) "None. It was left to me in a proper will by a man who died of old age and nothing else." Ysabelle doesn't believe this as just the other night he seemed to know nothing of this will when he came to ask for her help. Elijah argues that he told her he'd prove his resourcefulness and she agrees that he did, but she does not believe that murder was the way to do it. Elijah then glances at the tomb of three Dalliencourt ancestors she is trying to contact and tells her again that he did not murder the man and that if she wishes, she could cast a spell to contact the "shade" of the man so he can tell her himself, assuming such a spell is not beyond her powers. Ysabelle is baffled by this as she doesn't have much success with Necromantic Spells. While she does not answer, Elijah asks her how much she knows of Elijah's own ancestry to which Ysabelle admits she knows his mother is a legend. Elijah feels that he along with his siblings are legends as well, given the fact that one of his mother's most impressive spells was the creation of their immortality, but doesn't voice it. Instead, he holds in regard her skill as it was her magic that made it so that he could live almost ten centuries, which disgusts Ysabelle, who is typically cynical, as a witch, of his vampirism. Elijah is offended by this as she is young, does not have a husband or children of her own and feels it is uncalled-for for a woman of her age to judge Esther, as she does not understand what a mother would do to protect her children. Ysabelle goes on to say that if it is his "tainted blood" which he wants to offer her, he can leave and peddle it elsewhere because she only wants to do "pure magic" and not the Dark Magic that keeps him alive. Elijah reveals that the legacy he's talking about isn't his blood and it is not for sale one way or another. What he speaks of are "Grimoires". He asks if she is familiar with it or if was just a habit of his mother's. Elijah also tells her that their family hid the Grimoires' existence to protect themselves from witches who might hunt them for the books and rather spread rumors that they were lost, but had kept them as family heirlooms. Ysabelle is left speechless after he reveals its existence, saying that the things Esther could teach them through her Grimoires are unimaginable. Elijah offers her the use of the Grimoires, not possession and that there is a spell that she could use in them that can contact her own ancestors, and above that the former owner of the house that is now his to own to confirm his story in exchange for a spell of his own: a protection spell that he wants to be cast on the new house after she confirms his story. Ysabelle agrees to this and tells him to return at dawn with the Grimoire possessing the spell. The next day, Elijah comes to her house at dawn and gives her the Grimoire at the correct page and she starts preparing, taking longer than Elijah can appreciate as it would be an easy and fast-prepared-for spell for the more powerful witches of Europe whom he admits he now misses. Ysabelle sits within the circle they've drawn and begins her spell, which takes time to complete, but is victorious as the ghost she is attempting to contact, Hugo Rey, finally appears and confirms that he did die naturally after signing over his land to Elijah, furthermore he adds that he was in conflict with the Navarro Family for years and him signing over land to an Original Vampire was his way of vexing them one last time. He was an arms smuggler for the Navarros, but when he wanted to expand to give witches (who were at war with werewolves at the time) his weapons, the Navarros didn't take kindly to it. Once Ysabelle is satisfied, she bids him farewell back to his eternal rest. Sometime later, Ysabelle and Elijah are at Hugo Rey's former house and prepare for a protection spell which would keep witches and werewolves out without an invitation as would be the case for vampires. Ysabelle begins the spell, which requires an immense amount of power. Once it is "completed", Elijah feels the spell itself implode within the property as the glass of the house shatters and flies outward, threatening the witch's life. Elijah shields her with his own body and demands what happened, threatening the young witch. Ysabelle kneels over the earth and begins to channel the natural energy within the property, absorbing info which reveals that the land is still owned, by natural law, to the werewolf pack, the Navarro Family and that they gave to Hugo, who was apparently an untriggered werewolf. Ysabelle tells Elijah that she can break this mishap if he were to return to her the blood of a werewolf of the Navarro pack. Elijah tells her that he will return in two days with the blood required. Two days later, Elijah returns with the blood from Niklaus's jacket and Ysabelle performs the spell successfully breaking the sirebond that the werewolves have on the land while effectively casting the protection spell. To test if it worked, she withdraws a dagger and throws it at Klaus's back from outside the property, but the knife hits against the magical shield and falls back to the ground, showing that it was a success. Ysabelle is seen present and nervous at a meeting of the Factions as she has been aiding the Originals in secret. She is seen even more frightened when she sees Elijah attend forcefully and yet wisely and manipulatively earning his seat in it. Ysabelle nervously supports Elijah in his attempts to add his family in the Factions, and her sister, Sofia Lescheres who is the leader of the Witch Faction, supports her point of view. The meeting ends with the vampires having been added to the Factions and a celebration being decided upon. At the party, after a fight between the witches and werewolves ensues, Sofia is enraged because she discovered that her daughter was goaded by the werewolves into triggering her gene without her consent. Sofia wishes to destroy the wolves at the party, but Ysabelle and Elijah convince her that she would die if she takes part in the battle and rob Vivianne of a mother. As a werewolf comes rushing to attack, Sofia easily casts a spell which knocks the werewolf to the ground with a high-pitched whimper. Elijah steers the witches out of the party where Ysabelle comforts a heartbroken Sofia and takes her back to her house while at the party, the witches continue to fight the wolves. The werewolves kill a few witches and then leave the party quickly. The remaining groups of witches are so enraged at the wolves that they gather and begin to cast a powerful collective spell that has the purpose of creating a hurricane so powerful that it would raze New Orleans to the ground, killing all the werewolves so that they can rebuild it from the ground. Ysabelle's protection spell is later revealed to be strong enough to protect the new home of the Originals from a hurricane summoned by a majority of the town's witches. After the hurricane, Elijah visits her house to see if she survived as well as to inform her that her niece Vivianne is dead. Ysabelle is confirmed to have survived along with her sister Sofia in Ysabelle's house, which had also been protected by her. She is angered by her people's decision to destroy the town as neither she nor her sister had been informed before and a great deal of witches who weren't informed died on the day and is now grieving both Vivianne and the witches who died. Elijah tells her he will handle the funeral arrangements as she has to help her sister move on and Ysabelle agrees before rejoining her sister within the house. |-|The Loss= A woman named Lily Leroux is introduced in her own point of view in the Prologue. Lily is shown to be at her mother's funeral: Ysabelle Dalliencourt and that it's been forty years since the events of The Rise. Lily reveals that her mother had held together the witches and became their comforter after the Hurricane Spell killed off many of them. Ysabelle is vaguely held in high regard by her daughter as also having seized control of them shortly after, presumably because Sofia was too heartbroken for the task. Lily also shows that Ysabelle had categorically shut down any talk of retaliation or reprisal among the witches by reminding them that their own hands were responsible for their current sorry state. If they hadn't tried to seek reckless revenge against the werewolves for betraying their truce, they wouldn't be sequestered in the backwaters of the bayou. It is revealed that Lily Leroux also has a daughter, Marguerite Leroux, who must've been close to her grandmother because she is seen crying at Ysabelle's funeral. During the years of the aftermath, Ysabelle had taken control over the witches and she had taught them magic from Esther's Grimoires, making Esther their indirect rightful leader as she taught the New Orleans community everything they know, including the spell which allows them to connect to their ancestors through her Grimoires. Ysabelle had finally managed to use a spell in her grimoire to penetrate hole-like elements in the wall of the Other Side and using them to locate her ancestors behind it, thus being able to connect and communicate with them. Ysabelle is revealed to have kept a close relationship with Elijah throughout the forty-four years since the hurricane, but she had stopped due to the natural illness which killed her, sparking Lily's rage at the Originals and inspiring her spell which took advantage of Ysabelle's latter spell. Personality Ysabelle Dalliencourt was a proud young woman in her younger days and is described as having felt unappreciated when her opinion was belittled by the Navarro Werewolves at the table of the Factions. She was described as being power-hungry and opportunistic. Like most witches, Ysabelle respects Nature and despised the creation of the "abominations" that are vampires, which Elijah referred to as hypocritical as she continues to revere the magic capable of doing so. After her niece's death and the massacre that caused the witches to be run out of New Orleans by the vampires, Ysabelle's attitude has been described as being colder and harder as she would not even allow her own daughter to look weak at her own funeral. She was also described as developing into a mature and humble leader to her people who lived simply among them and declining to make any show of her status. Physical Appearance Ysabelle Dalliencourt was described by Elijah as being a very beautiful young woman with long auburn hair and deep-set brown eyes. She is tall, with thin bone structure but superior posture and carries herself with dignity. Ysabelle is seen often fidgeting with her long hair when nervous or excited and she closely resembles her sister Sofia Lescheres and her niece Vivianne. Powers and Abilities Ysabelle was a gifted and skilled witch. Her powers were not augmented as compared to the usually powerful witches of Europe as was stressed by Elijah Mikaelson when studying her techniques and speed. Ysabelle's spells were quite strong but took time to take effect. Ysabelle showed a potential for spell crafting when she attempted a spell to contact her ancestors, but she failed at this until Elijah gave her a spell from one his mother's Grimoires. It was quite a powerful spell as it contacted an untriggered werewolf from The Other Side, without much strain on Ysabelle. With a form of natural psychic power, Ysabelle was able to tap into the power in the earth to discover that portion of the land was owned by the Navarro Family as Pack Land, showing a form of environmental clairvoyance. Ysabelle was also able to protect Elijah/Hugo's house and her own with one of Esther's spells from a powerful hurricane which effectively leveled the entire city. Another exceptional act of witchcraft performed by Ysabelle was a spell she did to penetrate the Other Side with one of her mentor's spells, penetrating the Other Side and then casting a locator spell to locate them and lastly allow her power to cross through and communicate and connect with them, a prototype of a spell that would later create the Ancestral Plane, a realm disconnected from the Other Side and exclusive to Ancestral Witches who would be able to call on the power of the witches damned. Lily, her daughter, later sends her power through the vulnerable places of the Other Side and pulls all New World witches back to this world and transforms them into a species of mindless, undead, flesh-eating creatures, further revealing that Ysabelle Dalliencourt might have just been too young at the time Elijah analyzed her. Weaknesses Ysabelle had the typical weaknesses of a human/witch. Appearances *''The Originals: The Rise'' *''The Originals: The Loss'' (Corpse) Name *'Ysabelle' is girl's name of Hebrew and French origin, and the meaning of Ysabella is "God is my oath". Ysabella is a variant of Isabelle *'Dalliencourt' is of unknown origin, but it's likely French. Trivia *Ysabelle is the reason New Orleans harbors Ancestral Magic and is also the reason witches of New Orleans have an Ancestral Plane to go to after death. References See also Category:Novel Characters Category:The Originals Characters Category:Female Characters Category:New Orleans Residents Category:New Orleans Coven Category:Protagonists Category:Supernatural Category:Witches Category:Ancestral Spirits Category:Ghosts Category:Deceased